Enhancing jobs and schooling decision of Moldovan youth

The project offers opportunities to fill some of the information gaps that young Moldovans face in making schooling and jobs decisions by introducing an adapted and innovated version of the ‘Surfing the labour market’ tool which is an online platform and a phone application. A partnership of relevant and concerned institutions (including the employment offices, career centres, schools, employers) is responsible for the adaptation of this package in a move to improve its effectiveness and also ensure follow up to this intervention. The project is realized with the support of the Government of the Czech Republic.

Moldova has a high rate of inactive young people not in employment, education nor training (NEETs), representing 30.8% of the youth population in 2015 (i.e. more than double the average incidence of NEETs in the EU28). Young women are the largest group in this category, which underline family obligations as the major cause of their disconnection from the labour market.

The country boasts a highly educated workforce. However, not all educated youth find work that matches their level of qualifications: 29.1 % of young workers in Moldova are overqualified for the jobs they do. On the other hand, 60% of employers in Moldova face difficulties in filling vacant positions that require skilled personnel and 41% of them consider the level of skills of the workforce as a major constraint to their activity.

Thus, poor labour market outcomes in Moldova are partly explained by these skills mismatches. The provision of more systematic career guidance and an increase in the scope and quality of labour market information that students use when making educational and occupational decisions could have a positive impact on reducing the skills mismatches.

The ILO tool “Surfing the labour market: Job search skills for young people” has been developed on the basis of the experience gained by the ILO through the implementation of several technical assistance programmes on youth employment in countries of Central and Eastern Europe, North and West Africa, and Asia. Many of these programmes included job-skills training activities as part of comprehensive youth employment programmes. This tool has also been successfully converted in a phone application in some countries (for instance Tunisia) and has proven helpful support not only for young people involved in the programmes, but also for those who were yet to make career and educational choices.

The direct beneficiaries of the intervention are the staff of employment offices, career guidance centres, and schools. The ultimate beneficiaries of the intervention are young people who need more education and occupational information to be made available to them. Indirect beneficiaries of the intervention are the employers, as they may observe an improvement in the matching between career choices and the occupational profiles required by business.